“Mike Castle has done more than any other person in the last 25 years to shape United States coins,” says Steven R. Eichenbaum, CEO of NGC.

This coin holds the unique distinction of being the first and only bimetallic coin produced by the United States Mint and the first commemorative coin issued in the new millennium. The core of the coin is minted from a quarter ounce of platinum and features the hand of Minerva raising the Torch of Learning over the Jefferson Building. An outer ring minted from a quarter ounce of gold features the name, date and denomination of the coin. Only 27,445 proof coins were struck at the WestPoint Mint. Mike Castle, who played a major role in introducing platinum coins and changing the laws governing the issuance of commemorative coins.

The Honorable Michael was a two-term Governor of Delaware and near twenty-year member of the US House of Representatives and is directly responsible for some of the most important and popular modern US coins. While in Congress, he wrote and/or sponsored the bills that created the American Buffalo Gold coins, Platinum Eagles, 50 State Quarters Program, the Presidential Dollar Series, the America the Beautiful Quarters Program and a number of modern commemoratives including the 2006 silver dollars that honored Benjamin Franklin, an ancestor of Castle’s.